Monday 14 October 2013

President Moves To Divide G-7 Governors



Click for Full Image SizeThe secrecy surrounding the individual meetings between President Goodluck Jonathan and some G-7 governors in the last two weeks appears to have raised curiosity: it is suspected that the presidency has been working to break the ranks of the aggrieved governors and, by extension, the new PDP.

Before the last truce parley between President Jonathan and three of the G-7 governors, he held a separate meeting with the Kano State governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso.

The president had earlier played host to the Niger State governor, Muazu Babangida Aliyu, a week before his meeting with the Kano governor at the presidential villa.

An impeccable source disclosed that the meetings have been generating suspicion in the ranks of the new PDP.

But the national publicity secretary of the new PDP, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has dismissed insinuations that President Jonathan's meetings with the governors were capable of infusing dissent among the new PDP leadership.

The factional deputy national chairman of the group, Sam Sam Jaja, affirmed that the new PDP was united.

The source said: 'The fight for internal democracy that we waged against Tukur and the president is not a personal one; we all have our personal relationships with either Tukur or the president; but a situation where some people, because they have access to the villa, will go in to meet with the president and table their personal matters will only whittle down our fight.

'Today, you have seen that our operational office has been sealed up by the same people who say they are pursuing peace; this is happening because most of the governors have been discussing different and personal matters with the president each time they have audience with him.

'This is not to say that some of the governors are not committed to the fight but, from all indications, a few of them have been singing new tunes and we don't find it pleasant at all. For now, only two or three of the governors can be said to have stood resolute in defence of the initial code we set for ourselves. '

He further disclosed that the initial agreement before the August 31 walkout at the PDP national convention was that the new PDP would join the APC.

'Our initial plan was to join the APC so that we could join forces with other like minds to remove these anti-democratic forces from the corridors of power.

'We agreed to team up with the APC but later events and developments showed that some persons were not comfortable with the leadership of the APC; this, to some of us, was not good enough because the only way to achieve the aim of the struggle is to re-create a new Nigeria by voting out PDP, and the only way to do this would have been to decamp to the APC'.

But Eze blamed the Tukur-led PDP. 'Those are the prayers of the Tukur PDP and they will fail; we are more united than before and the issue of the next platform option is not what could be rushed; we need to await the arrival of all our governors and other leaders who are currently on Hajj.

'As soon as they return, Nigerians will be given the opportunity to know our next line of thinking regarding what steps we would take,' he said.

Also, Jaja said: 'It is totally false that the G-7 governors and the new PDP are disunited; you should know that such mischievous speculations are not unexpected. But those who wish we had a crack shall be totally disappointed. '

Besides, the source within the Alhaji Kawu Baraje-led faction hinted that the position of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) regarding the refusal of recognition to the faction had created a situation of 'indecision' in the group.

INEC had, last week, written to the new PDP that it was not inclined to withdrawing the recognition the commission had already given to the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP.

The development, the source said, had placed three options before the new PDP: joining the APC, abandoning the struggle midway, and joining the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM). But he cited the last option as 'too dangerous to gamble with'.

Saturday 12 October 2013

Say "NO" to domestic violence; MFM Pastor Beats Up Lover, Abducts Daughter

A man, who claimed to be the pastor of Prayer Mountain Ministries, Lagos, Olusola Adewunmi, has been accused of aggravated assault against his lover, Queen Ujiatolor, in the Onipanu area of Lagos State.



Although not legally married, the couple are said to have two children together. Their five-year relationship is said to have been fraught with domestic violence.

When PUNCH Metro visited the victim in a hospital, her legs and hands were bandaged while she was also placed on drip.

She said, "I met Adewunmi in 2009; he had just returned from Pakistan where he was said to have served a prison term. He told me he was a changed man and a pastor; I believed him.

"Soon after, we had a marriage introduction and our two families met and subsequently, we started living together.

"However, months into the relationship, he started beating me. Sometimes, he would use a belt or any object he found. After the beating, I would report to his parents and they would come begging me to forgive him."

The victim alleged that even during pregnancy, Adewunmi did not stop the beating.

Ujiatolor said she was driven out of their home six months after she had put to bed. A member of Adewunmi's church allegedly took her place as the pastor's new lover.

She said a year later, in 2012, the pastor came back to her for reconciliation and promised to wed her legally. However, this was not to be as the physical violence allegedly continued.

Ujiatolor claimed to have sustained a fracture in the process and was rushed to Regina Mundi Hospital, Mushin in Lagos.

The victim said their relationship got worse when the pastor told her that she must change her last name but she refused because they had not done a proper wedding. She was forced to move out of the home after the birth of the second child in May 2013.

Things allegedly took a turn for the worse on September 22, when Adewunmi forcefully abducted one of their children in her absence.

She said, "On that day, I was at a seminar in Ilupeju when he called me on the telephone, calling me a prostitute. He told me he had taken our older daughter and that I would never see her again. So, I went to his church and attempted to take her away. He hit me from behind and pushed me into a glass door. After he saw the extent of my injuries, he fled."

The doctor, Gani Yahaya, said the victim sustained lacerations on her calf muscle and had splinters of glass in her wounds.

It was learnt that the incident was reported at the Alakara Police Division and later transferred to the Area D Command.

A non-governmental organisation, Project Alert on Violence Against Women, which took over Ujiatolor's case, called on the police to take the case seriously.

The Director, Dr. Josephine Effa-Chukwuma, said, "We are appalled at the situation and no one should condone any form of domestic abuse. The police should also take the matter seriously rather than regarding it as a family affair."

When contacted on the phone, Adewunmi said, "I cannot tell you if it is true or a lie. I have no comment and I don't want to get involved in press matter."

The Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Damasus Ozoani, confirmed that the matter had been reported to the police and investigations were ongoing.

Shocking Revelation of the Black Box of Associated Airline Plane

The black box of the Associated Airline aircraft which crashed on Oct. 3 in Lagos Nigeria has revealed that, there appeared to have been an argument between the Captain and the First Officer of the Airline.

The readout of the black box ,also known as Cockpit Voice Recorder, CVR, conducted by Nigeria's Accident Investigation Bureau, AIB, in its Abuja's laboratory revealed that the computer onboard the plane sent a warning message to the Captain, Yakubu Abdulrahman, shortly before take-off but he ignored it.

The First Officer then suggested to the pilot to abort take-off but Yakubu Abdulrahman proceeded and took off"The First Officer asked if the take-off should be aborted approximately 12 seconds after the 'eight knots' callout," said Captain Mukhtar Usman, Commissioner Accident Investigation Bureau,AIB.

AIB said the pilot and the co-pilot discussed some concerns about the aircraft prior to departure.

"The crew discussed some concerns about the aircraft prior to departure but at this time we are not prepared to elaborate on those concerns as there remains a lot of work to do to complete on the CVR analysis in order to determine the specific nature of the crew's concerns," said AIB Commissioner, Muktar Usman.

Usman said approximately four seconds after engine power was advanced to commence the take-off roll, the crew received an automated warning from the onboard computer voice which consisted of three chimes followed by "take-off flaps…take-off flaps.

"This is a configuration warning that suggests that the flaps were not in correct position for take-off. And there is some evidence that the crew may have chosen not to use the flap for take-off," Usman said.

"This warning continued throughout the take-off roll," Usman added.

"Approximately three seconds after 'power is set' call, the First Officer noted that the aircraft was moving slowly.

"At this time we can state that the Right engine appeared to be producing considerably less thrust than the left engine. The left engine appeared to be working normally," Usman said.

Friday 11 October 2013

2013 Lagos International Trade Fair (LITF)

2013 Lagos International Trade Fair

The Lagos International Trade Fair is the largest and best organized Trade Fair in the West African sub-region. With over 100,000 business visitors over a 10 day period, the LITF is the gateway to Nigeria's and Africa's evolving market.

This Fair is organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Vistors Profile: 
It is anticipated that the Fair will attract over 1,500,000 visitors from within and outside the Country including businessmen, investors, consumers, top government officials and representatives of Nigeria's important trading houses and those seeking joint-venture partnerships.

Exhibitor's Profile:
Profile for exhibit includes Business Organizations in Nigeria, Overseas Organizations and Governments, ECOWAS Member States, Diplomatic Missions and Trade Representatives, Federal and State Government owned Companies, Agencies and Parastatals, Research and Educational Institutions.

Venue Information
Date: Friday 1st – Sunday 10th November 2013
Time: 09:00am - 07:00pm daily
Venue: Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS), Onikan-Lagos.

Organised by:
Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry
House (1st Floor). 1, Idowu Taylor Street Victoria Island,P.O Box 109, Marina, Lagos
Lagos, Nigeria
Tel: +(234)-(1)-7732305
Contact Person:
Mr. Dele Alimi
Tel: +234-1-7732305
Mob: +234-8034954092


Note: Contact the organisers and book your stalls. It is one of its kind. Cheers..

Thursday 18 July 2013

Royal babies: Five things you didn't know

Amid all the excitement and wall-to-wall media coverage about the eagerly-awaited new addition to the royal family, you may think you know all you could ever want to about royal babies. But did you know...

A government minister used to be present at royal births, to make sure the baby was not switched
The practice is believed to have begun in 1688, when dozens of officials watched Mary of Modena, wife of James II, give birth to a son, to scotch rumors that Mary was not really pregnant and that the baby was to be smuggled into the room in a bedpan.

The tradition continued well into the 20th century. The last royal birth to be witnessed by a government minister was that of Queen Elizabeth II's cousin, Princess Alexandra in 1936, and the practice was only officially halted shortly before the birth of Prince Charles in 1948.

Royal husbands have not always attended the birth of their children
Queen Elizabeth II may not have had to contend with ministerial interference in her birth plan, but she also didn't have her husband there for support; while she gave birth to Prince Charles, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh was busy playing squash.
Royal baby watch
Could baby girl modernize monarchy?
Royal birth a boon for souvenir industry
Road to the royal baby's birth
Prince Charles was on hand when Diana had Prince William, but William himself may not be there for his own child's birth -- expected any day now -- if he's at work as a search-and-rescue pilot when the big moment arrives.

If for any reason William can't get to the hospital on time, the Duchess of Cambridge is reported to have asked her mother, Carole Middleton, to be there to support her.

Queen Victoria was the first royal to use anesthesia in childbirth
The long-reigning monarch and mother-of-nine was given chloroform for pain relief during the births of her eighth and ninth children, Prince Leopold (born in 1853) and Princess Beatrice (born in 1857).

Her decision to opt for an anesthetic is credited with popularizing the use of painkillers during childbirth among the well-to-do of the time.
John Snow, the doctor who administered the drug, is better known as one of the founding fathers of epidemiology, after he traced a deadly outbreak of cholera to a Soho water pump.

Prince William was the first heir to the throne to be born in hospital
William was born in the private Lindo Wing of St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on June 21, 1982. His brother was born at the same hospital two years later, and William's new son or daughter is also expected to come into the world there.
While that might seem the normal way of things, in fact it was something of a break with tradition -- until then, all heirs to the throne had been born at home (or at one of the royal family's homes at least).

Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace; Elizabeth II herself was born in the Mayfair home of her grandfather in 1926 -- though at the time she was not expected to become queen as her uncle, and not her father, was next in line to the throne.

Titled royal babies do not have surnames
Members of the royal family are famously burdened with plenty of names -- Prince William was christened William Arthur Philip Louis, and his father is Charles Philip Arthur George -- but many (those titled His or Her Royal Highness) do not have a surname.

Prince William and Prince Harry have used "Wales" at school and during their military careers, but this comes from their father's official title as Prince of Wales. William and Kate may continue to use this for their new baby.

As descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, they could also use Windsor, or Mountbatten-Windsor -- both of which are relatively new inventions, adopted during World War I to disguise the family's German origins.
Alternatively, the royal parents-to-be could even opt to found their own dynasty, using "Cambridge" as a surname.

Blind student learns to read Braille with lips

Tsang Tsz-Kwan may look like an average student in Hong Kong with her standard-issue blue shift dress with a Chinese collar and sensible black shoes. But her ordinary appearance and shy manner mask a steely determination to triumph over tremendous odds.

She recently scored within the top 5% for nearly all her subjects in the city's college entrance examination -- despite being blind and severely hearing-impaired from a young age. She also lacks sensitivity in her fingertips, which denies her the ability to feel the raised dots of Braille characters.

Rather than admit defeat, the 20 year old found an alternative way to read Braille -- with her lips.

"In Primary 1 (the equivalent of Grade 1 in the United States), I noticed that she was always leaning forward," said Mee-Lin Chiu, a teacher at the Ebenezer School & Home for the Visually Impaired -- the only special needs school in Hong Kong dedicated to the blind.
"She told me it was because she could read more clearly with her lips than her hands."

This is the first I have heard of someone being successful using the lips.
Diane Wormsely, North Carolina Central University
Tsang herself admitted: "I know it's not a common approach and it sounds rather strange. Even I myself don't know how it came about," she added, calling it "miraculous."

In actual fact, the lips, tongue, and fingertips are particularly adept at spatial discrimination — they can perceive two points that are only 1-3 millimeters apart, according to the classic anatomy text, Field's Anatomy, Palpation and Surface Markings. In comparison, the legs or back of the hands can only detect two points with a separation of more than 50-100 millimeters.

While Tsang may not be the very first person to resort to lip-reading Braille, she appears to be a rare case. "This is the first I have heard of someone being successful using the lips," said Diane Wormsely, a professor at North Carolina Central University who specializes in education for the visually impaired. Chiu also said that Tsang was the only student at Ebenezer to have used their lips -- and is the sole case she is aware of in Hong Kong.

Lip-reading Braille is not without its challenges, however.
"Nobody could accept it in the beginning," Tsang said. "Even now, many people find it odd ... It's caused some embarrassment when I read in public places and in front of people that I don't have a close relationship with."

Nobody could accept it in the beginning...Even now, many people find it odd.
Tsang Tsz-Kwan
It also poses practical problems, as Braille books are typically large and heavy.
Nonetheless, Tsang said she is "grateful" to still have a way to learn about the world through the written word. Reading is one of her favorite past times -- a source of intellectual stimulation and psychological refuge.

She also believes she can transcend her disabilities through hard work, determination, and the willingness to push herself outside of her comfort zone.
"Without the courage to challenge myself, there is surely no possibility of success," she said.

At Ebenezer, her classes were comprised of only ten students, whose shared disability enabled them to easily build close friendships. All materials were prepared in Braille and teachers were specially trained to work with the blind.
But in Form 1 (the equivalent of Grade 7 in the United States), Tsang decided to leave the comfort of Ebenezer and move to a regular secondary school, wanting to immerse herself in a more authentic, mainstream environment. "I have to facilitate my adaptation to society when I finish my studies and have to enter the workplace," she said.

Her transition to the city's Ying Wa Girls' School was not always easy. Classes were much larger and teachers did not have specialized training to work with blind students. Tsang had to send all printed materials to Ebenezer or the Hong Kong Society for the Blind for transcription into Braille. Reading and writing took her twice the amount of time it did for her peers, she said.

She learned she had to be more independent and make a greater effort to express her feelings and needs with staff and students, who were welcoming but unaccustomed to dealing with a blind person.
Without the courage to challenge myself, there is surely no possibility of success.

Tsang Tsz-Kwan
One of her teachers, Kwong Ho-Ka, said that staff learned over time when to intervene to help her.
"If she needs something, she will let us know," Kwong said, adding that her fiercely independent student walked around the school campus unassisted, eschewing a walking stick and elevators and taking the stairs by herself.
Kwong, who clearly holds deep affection for her student, said that while Tsang was never bullied, social integration has been a gradual process.
"She has friends, but she's not part of some big group. For example, a gaggle of girls may be chatting about pop culture, but it can be difficult for her to enter the conversation. She may not recognize who is speaking in overlapping conversations and she lacks familiarity with pop culture."

Attending class with the same cohort of students over the past three years has helped a lot, Kwong said, and students have learned to make an effort to include Tsang in conversations.

Tsang said that she has made close friends. "I am grateful for their acceptance of me as a normal member of their social circle and throughout these years, they have given me a great deal of support and encouragement."

While her academic feats -- she scored 5**, the highest possible grade, for Chinese, English, and Liberal Studies, 5* for Chinese Literature and English Literature and 4 for Math — have won her much acclaim in Hong Kong, Tsang admits that she surprised herself.

"I was really astonished and excited when I heard that my results in some of the subjects were far from my expectations," she said. "I felt my hard work this year has finally paid off."
I'm going to treasure what I still have.

Tsang Tsz-Kwan
She hopes to study translation at university starting this fall to have a "balanced development in both Chinese and English."
"Whenever I come across some thought-provoking and touching books, I really wish I could translate them into different languages so as to share them with more readers," she added.

As she embarks on the new phase of her hard-won education, Tsang maintains matter-of-fact and philosophical. "The inconveniences and limitations (my impairments) bring will follow me my whole life ...and I must have the courage to face the facts...I'm going to treasure what I still have."
"I would like to encourage everyone to have the courage and perseverance to go through all the ups and downs in our lives because I know everyone has their own difficulties. But one thing is for sure: where there's a will, there's a way."

PayPal accidentally credits man $92 quadrillion

Chris Reynolds' PayPal account was erroneously credited $92,233,720,368,547,800.
When Chris Reynolds opened his June PayPal e-mail statement, something was off.
The Pennsylvania PR executive's account balance had swelled to a whopping $92,233,720,368,547,800.

That's $92 QUADRILLION (and change).

Money that would make Reynolds -- who also sells auto parts on eBay in his spare time -- the richest man in the world by a long shot.

Rich, as in more than a million times richer than Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim. And he's worth $67 billion.

Oh, if only.

"It's a curious thing. I don't know, maybe someone was having fun," Reynolds said.

So he logged online, and reality bit back. His account balance read $0. The correct amount.

PayPal admitted the error and offered to donate an unspecified amount of money to a cause of Reynolds' choice.

"This is obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understood this was the case," PayPal said in a statement.
Before this incident, the most Reynolds ever made on PayPal was "a little over $1,000" selling a set of vintage BMW tires on eBay.

So what would the would-be quadrillionaire have done with all that cash?
"I probably would have paid down the national debt," he said.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

I'm 16-Year-Old, Not 60 - Teen With Rare Genetic Disorder

I'm 16-Year-Old, Not 60 - Teen With Rare Genetic Disorder


A British teenager, Zara Hartshorn, 16, with an inherited genetic disorder that has made her look middle-aged practically since she was a child made a facelift operation.
Zara, originally from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was given a free facelift after a doctor heard of her condition, and she said the results have given her a new lease on life.

She inherited lipodystrophy - which makes her skin looked wrinkled and twisted - from her mother Tracey Gibson who also suffers from the illness.
But after hearing of her condition, a top surgeon in the US offered to perform cosmetic surgery for free. It has proved to be a complete success and Zara has felt able to start a relationship with new boyfriend Ricky Andrews and is even keen to go to college.

By the time she was 12, Zara was already being mistaken for a middle-aged woman - and was even mistaken for 17-year-old sister Chloe's mother.

She said: "Before I had surgery I was picked on for looking different, now I look the same as other girls my age.
"I don't feel like people are staring at me when I walk down the street anymore. I finally feel like a teenager.

"I've carried some hurtful comments with me all my life but now I feel ready to leave the past behind and forgive and forget."

Her newfound self-assurance has helped her start a relationship with apprentice painter and decorator Ricky, 22, three months ago, who she met through friends.
She said: "I've had boyfriends in the the past but I don't think any accepted my condition, really. But with Ricky it's never been an issue."

Friday 21 June 2013

Meet the world’s fattest 4-year-old, he’s from China


Lu Zhi-hao, who is 110cms tall from Shunde, Guangdong, is being taken by his concerned parents to Hong Kong to try and tackle his obesity.

Dubbed by Chinese media as China’s “no. 1 fat kid” Lu Zhi-hao, known as Xiao Hoa, has been taken to several hospitals in Guangdong to find out why he’s so fat, but doctors can only say that it is down to bad eating habits, Apple Daily reports.
 
If something is not done to reduce his weight, doctors predict Lu Zhi-hao’s obesity will become life-threatening by the time he turns 20.

A Hong Kong weight-loss centre has offered to help Lu Zhi-hao lose weight for free. The centre, which has not given out its name, uses non-intrusive Japanese technology to help the body break down fat.
Xiao Hao’s parents are now applying for a permit to travel to Hong Kong and hope to be here with their obese child in a couple of weeks.

“We believe there must be specialists in Hong Kong who can help us,” says Lu Zhi-hao’s father, Lu Ye-ming.

The mother and father of the child are both of normal weight, and obesity has not been a part of the family’s health history. Lu Zhi-hao slowly ate his way to fatness.

He is now on a diet, which means cutting down from his regular three bowls of rice per meal to just one bowl.

Apple Daily’s video of Xiao Hao at school shows him finishing his bowl of rice at lightning speed and begging his friends for their lunches. When they don’t cooperate, he steals a meatball from his neighbour’s bowl.
He is rewarded with a punch to the face, but the swing hardly seems to have an impact on the child’s puffy cheeks

The WHO says more than 20 percent of the population in some Chinese cities are now obese.

Thursday 20 June 2013

Three Sisters With Werewolf Syndrome Fear They'll Never Get Married


This story first broke out last year as reported by Sun Newspaper (UK) but the gist is that these three sisters who are based in India say their dreams of getting married is a nightmare and fear they will never find husbands because of their uncontrollable hair growth! The sisters are suffering from Hypertrichosis Universalis simply referred to as Werewolf Syndrome; a condition affecting just one in a billion people means their bodies are covered in extra hair — giving them extremely bushy eyebrows and beards.

And Savita, 23, Monisha, 18, and 16-year-old Savitri fear the will leave as life-long spinsters.
Savita said: “Marriage is not an option for us. Who is going to marry us when hair keeps growing on our faces?” The sisters are now using hair removal cream but the hair returns too quickly to maintain.
Savita added: “When I used to go to school the boys and girls would shout ‘hairy face’, ‘horrible looking’,
and ‘don’t sit next to her’.”

The condition was passed down by the girls’ father with whom Anita was forced into an arranged marriage by her uncle and aunt when she was 12.

She said: “It was only on the day of my marriage that I discovered what my husband was, hairy on his face, ears and body. He scared the hell out of me when he arrived at the altar."

See more photos below:






Friday 24 May 2013

Chinese newspaper erects ‘giant penis’ building

China Peoples Daily building

When it comes to office buildings, does size really matter? It just might, if China’s main state-run newspaper has its way.
The People’s Daily is used to breaking news, but recently it became the news after some dirty, dirty minds realized the paper’s new headquarters was starting to look like, well, a giant penis.
The building, which stands 150 meters tall, is currently under construction in Beijing. Due to its rather distinctive shaft — er, shape — mischievous pictures of the construction zone began cropping up on China’s Twitter equivalent, Sina Weibo.
More than one person pointed out that, with a little creative Photoshopping, the “Giant Penis” building fit snugly between the “legs” of the infamous China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters, sometimes referred to as the “Big Underpants” building.
china peoples daily penis
If you think about it, the two buildings actually embody the traditional Chinese philosophy of yin and yang harmony, writes blog Hug China.
“As the CCTV headquarters nicknamed as Big Underpants plays the role of Yin (negative, female) with large hole under the ‘two pants,’ the People’s Daily new headquarters are the Yang (positive, male),” Hug China states. “The two key mouthpieces of CPC are really perfectly embodying the traditional Yin-Yang concept.”
Phallic puns aside, word of the mockery soon reached China’s censors, who were decidedly unamused and set about spoiling everyone’s fun, reports the South China Morning Post. Now, Weibo visitors searching for “People’s Daily building” are instead met with this message: “According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, search results cannot be displayed.”
“This points to both the frustration among young Chinese Internet users, and the sensitivity among censors to even silly dissent online,” Reuter’s Anita Li noted.

Tuesday 21 May 2013

A MOTHER'S LETTER TO HER CHILDREN ABOUT MARRIAGE (worth reading - SHARE THIS MESSAGE)

Dear Children,

Should the Lord give you the good gift of a husband or wife, and I hope He does, there are a few things I want you to know. Things that you may not hear from anyone else, and certainly not on TV or other media. Sadly,... your church may not even tell you.
Marriage, sweet little people, is not for the purpose of your happiness. Happy as I want you to be and hope you will be, you must yet understand that marriage is God’s design and His purposes must be pursued in order for you to be truly happy. His end is holiness and He will use all things in a life devoted to Him to fulfill that end.

To my girls:
Marry a man whose first pursuit is Christ. After that, he is not hard to please. Admire him, cheer him on and show gratitude, and he will fall over himself trying to please you. Smile often, speak well of him always, and do whatever necessary to try and maintain a pleasant mood about you so that it transfers to your home, making it a place where he and your children love to be.
You’ll have bad days of course, crying days even, and that’s when you go to your bedroom, kneel on the floor and beg the Lord to carry you. Then get up, get a fresh perspective (crayons will come off the wall), and try again. Above all else, make a home.

To my boys:
Marry a woman whose first pursuit is Christ. After that, she may be hard to please only if you don’t know “the secret”. What is that? I’m glad you asked. The secret to pleasing your wife is to make her feel safe and treasured. You may have to move out of your comfort zone to do this at times. She won’t always readily translate the oil change to love, though it means that. But let me give you a “secret question”–a question you need to ask her often. It’s not just in the asking, though. Be sure to focus your eyes on hers, maybe even touch her shoulder or face, and then ask: “What’s on your mind these days? “ And then be ready to listen. She wants you to draw her out. She will perceive this as your protection over the matters of her heart. Tenderness, listening, protection. That’s what she wants.

To you all:
If your wife or husband does something really stupid, forgive. If they do it again, forgive again. Forgiveness must be the propelling force in your lives each day. Dwell on the strengths, push out thoughts of their weaknesses. Take every thought captive–choose to love.

Here’s that part you are not going to hear often:
If you find yourself “not happy”, having lost attraction, disinterested, etc., you are not permitted to even think about a divorce. If you find yourselves arguing more and more, don’t think for a minute that “the children will be better off out of this”, because they won’t.

The vows you took on your wedding day were not suggestions. They were covenant vows, before a Holy God, family and friends, to stay with this person the rest of your life, even if you don’t feel like it. You swore a solemn oath and if you can’t live up to it, don’t get married. Decide up front that your marriage is irrevocable. There is far more motivation for getting along if your “marriage house” has no door.
Do not share intimate thoughts or feelings with anyone of the opposite sex. Do not find yourself alone for any length of time with such either.
Divorce is not a “private option”. It will affect multiple families for many generations. When you “separate what God has joined” you permanently injure far more than just yourself.
Guard your marriage as fiercely as you would guard your own life. Treat your spouse as an extension of your flesh, just as God sees you. Treat your spouse like other family members. You know, “you gotta love ‘em, they’re the only family you’ve got”.
I want you to be happy, I surely do. But I will pray for you to be holy.

Proverbs 19:14 - "Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the LORD."
Proverbs 20:6-7 - "Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find? The righteous man leads a blameless life; blessed are his children after him."

God bless you saints...

(SHARE THE MESSAGE WITH YOUR FRIENDS)

THE MIRACLE OF LOVE.. TRUE STORY!!

MIRACLE OF A BROTHER'S SONG-

Like any good mother, when Karen found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her 3-year-old son, Michael, prepare for a new sibling.
The new baby was going be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Michael sang to his sister in Mommy’s tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her.
The pregnancy progressed normally for Karen, an active member of the the Creek United Methodist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, USA.
In time, the labor pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Karen found herself in hours of labor.
Finally, after a long struggle, Michael’s little sister was born. But she was in very serious condition. With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.
The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The pediatrician had to tell the parents there was very little hope. Be prepared for the worst. Karen and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their house for their new baby they found themselves having to plan for a funeral.
Michael, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. “I want to sing to her,” he kept saying.
Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Michael kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in Intensive Care.
Karen decided to take Michael whether they liked it or not. If he didn’t see his sister right then, he may never see her alive. She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket.
The head nurse recognized him as a child and bellowed, “Get that kid out of here now. No children are allowed.”
The mother rose up strong in Karen and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse’s eyes, her lips a firm line, “He is not leaving until he sings to his sister.”
Then Karen towed Michael to his sister’s bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began tossing. In the pure-hearted voice of a 3-year-old, Michael sang:
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray.”
Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. The pulse rate began to calm down and became steady.
“Keep on singing, Michael,” encouraged Karen with tears in her eyes.
“You never know, dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.”
As Michael sang to his sister, the baby’s ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten’s purr. “Keep on singing, sweetheart.”
“The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms”.
Michael’s little sister began to relax as rest, healing rest, seemed to sweep over her. “Keep singing, Michael.” Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse. Karen glowed.
“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. Please don’t take my sunshine away…”
The next day,…the very next day…the little girl was well enough to go home.
Never give up on the people you love. Love is so incredibly powerful.
- The Woman’s Day Magazine called it, “the miracle of a brother’s song”.
- The medical staff called it a miracle.
- Karen called it a miracle of God’s love.
marlee
This is a true story happened in 1992 in Tennessee, USA. The baby girl’s name is Marlee (picture on the above). As of 2012, Marlee is 20 years old and she thinks she is normal like

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Survivors of the Worst Drunk Driving Crash in History Look Back



Karolyn Nunnallee still remembers that morning 25 years ago when her husband called to ask if she knew where to find their 10-year-old daughter Patty's dental records.

The authorities needed them, he told her, to identify Patty's body in the charred wreckage of what turned out to be the nation's worst-ever drunk driving crash.

"I still think about it, but not every day," Nunnallee says in a quiet voice choked with sadness. "That's a good thing, I guess. It means I'm healing."

The May 14, 1988, crash that claimed Patty's life – along with that of 26 other passengers (mostly children) in a school bus returning to Radcliff, Ky., from a church group amusement park outing – horrified the nation and paved the way for tougher drunk driving laws.

Now, to mark the 25th anniversary, one of the survivors, partnered with MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), has put together Impact: After The Crash – a powerful, gritty documentary on the tragedy.

"I never wanted her to die in vain," says Nunnallee, a 62-year-old grandmother, who was so transformed by the tragedy that she later served as national president of MADD. "I don't want anyone to forget."

With that in mind, PEOPLE spoke with three others whose lives were forever changed by the crash.

HAROLD DENNIS: "I don't know why I survived and so many didn't"



Survivors of the Worst Drunk Driving Crash in History Look Back| Death, Health, Real People Stories
Harold Dennis

Harold Dennis was asleep beside his best friend when 34-year-old factory worker Larry Mahoney's Toyota pickup slammed into their bus, causing the vehicle's unprotected fuel tank to rupture and burst into flames.

"I couldn't breathe," says Dennis, who was 14 at the time. "I knew my life was over and felt that frantic feeling that can't be described unless you've gone through it."

In the chaos, time seemed to slow down and Dennis, hoping to escape through the front door, ran toward the front of the bus, already engulfed in flames. As each moment passed, the temperatures inside climbed, eventually hitting 2,000 degrees.

He tried to open a window in order to crawl out, but it wouldn't budge.

Seconds later, Dennis stumbled over a tangle of bodies as he tried to make it to the back of the bus, only realize that the tiny emergency exit was clogged with many of the other 66 passengers desperately trying to escape.

"Someone on the outside grabbed my arm, put their foot on the bumper and literally pulled me out," Dennis says. "I hit the asphalt and started running, even though I couldn't see anything because my eyes were swollen shut. I could hear the screams and the explosions."

Dennis, who suffered third-degree burns on 20 percent of his body, spent years undergoing multiple skin-graft surgeries. "Going through this," he says, "forced me to grow up and mature a lot faster."

He eventually threw himself into athletics and made headlines years later while playing wide receiver for the University of Kentucky football team.

Now 39, married and the father of three, Dennis – whose best friend died in the blaze – hopes the movie he produced about the tragedy will not only remind people about the dangers of driving drunk, "but how the choices we make can affect our lives and the lives of countless other people around us."

QUINTON HIGGINS: "I knew I was going to die"



Survivors of the Worst Drunk Driving Crash in History Look Back| Death, Health, Real People Stories
Quinton Higgins

Quinton Higgins, 40, never imagined he'd be driving a school bus for a living – especially not after he almost died in one as a teenager. But Higgins insists that he enjoys "the job more than anything I've ever done."

Like Dennis, Higgins was pulled from the back of the burning bus with burns covering much of his body. "Doctors told my parents I had a 50-50 chance of living," he recalls.

After the accident as he lay in his hospital bed recuperating, he grappled with a jumble of feelings, made even more complicated by the fact that his alcoholic father had been involved in several drunk driving accidents.

This, he insists, was one of the reasons why he was able to eventually forgive Larry Mahoney, the driver who spent nearly 10 years (of a 17-year-sentence) in prison for the 27 deaths.

"One of my first thoughts when I woke up was, 'This could have been my dad,' " says Higgins. "That's how I was able to forgive Larry. I know he didn't wake up that morning saying he was going to kill 27 people."

Like Dennis, Higgins, who also lost his best friend in the blaze, has tried to use the trauma to transform the way people think about drunk driving. "When I tell kids my story," he says, "they always say to me, 'I'll never drink and drive.' So hopefully I'm helping to change some lives."

If nothing else, the tragedy has made Higgins much more obsessive about bus safety. "I'm definitely strict about safety on my bus, especially when it comes to blocking aisles and emergency exits," he says. "Sometimes the kids ask why I'm so serious about it. But once they hear what I went through, they understand."

LEE WILLIAMS: "I lost my wife, two little girls and all the memories I wanted to make"



Survivors of the Worst Drunk Driving Crash in History Look Back| Death, Health, Real People Stories
Lee Williams

When Lee Williams first learned that the bus his wife and two daughters were traveling in was involved in an "accident," he tried to convince himself that the vehicle had been involved in a minor fender bender or had hit a deer.

Six hours later, he learned the awful truth.

"I'd lost all of them," he says. "Words can't even begin to describe the loneliness, hurt and complete emptiness that I felt."

Not long after their deaths, Williams, now 63, pulled all his family photographs off the walls of his home and packed them away in boxes.

At night, he would sit in the empty house alone, sometimes wandering into his daughters' bedrooms to stare at their Barbie dolls or their clothes still strewn across the floor, touching the items because he knew his daughters had.

"Some nights," he says, "I'd stay out all night driving around because I didn't want to go home."

Nine months after the crash, Williams got up the nerve to ask Dotty Pearman to eat lunch with him at a local restaurant. Pearman's husband, killed in the accident, had been the bus driver; her daughter Christy, a passenger on the bus, nearly died from the burns she received in the blaze.

"I didn't care what anyone thought," Williams recalls. "I just wanted to be with someone who had lost somebody, who knew what it was like to wake up in the middle of the night and know your spouse is no longer there."

Williams and Dotty, 59, married five months later and he went to work becoming a father to Dotty's three children. The couple now have 11 grandkids.

"I have a blessed life," says Williams, an associate pastor at the Radcliff First Assembly of God Church. "All this has made me slow down and appreciate what I have. When you lose one treasure and God gives you another, you do everything you can to take care of it."

SHOCKING STORY!!! : I Don’t Want To Be Role Model - World’s Thinnest Woman

Weighing just four stone, extreme anorexic Valeria Levitin is thought to be the thinnest woman in the world. Her malnourished figure and matchstick-thin thighs should serve as a stark warning about the dangers of eating disorders.

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But worryingly, Valeria says she gets FAN MAIL from girls desperate to copy her skeletal look. The 39-year-old says:
“I have received emails from young girls who want me to teach them how to be like me”. “All the letters I’ve had are from women, mainly in their twenties, who see me as some kind of inspiration”
“This is why I want to campaign against anorexia. I am not going to teach them how to die. It is not a game, it is not a joke, it is your life”.

Valeria, who developed her eating disorder as a teenager, has chosen to speak out about how the illness has ruined her life  and how she is desperate to win her battle in order to have a family.

“I want to share my story to help sufferers and their families from repeating my fate”, says Valeria, who is originally from Russia but now lives in Monaco. “I want young people to live happy, healthy and meaningful lives. Anorexia has made me lonely, unattractive and repulsive for the people around me.”

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5ft 8in, Valeria’s weight should be between 9st and 12st, according to NHS advice. Instead she is a horrifying 4st 3lbs, less than HALF of what her lightest healthy weight should be.

At 16, and weighing 10st, Valeria moved to Chicago, USA, with her mum and stepdad. The move brought even more pressure to be slim.
She said:
“The environment was very different. I wanted to be liked everyone and I thought that if I lost weight, I would be accepted”.
“I started cutting out certain foods from my diet — I wouldn’t eat sugar or carbohydrates”. “I became trapped in a vicious circle where I needed to lose more weight to feel happy with myself”.
“Now it’s almost impossible to put the weight I’ve lost back on because my body can’t process many foods”.

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When a classmate made a cruel comment about Valeria’s figure, she became even more determined to lose weight.
She explains: “We were playing football and during the game a man said, ‘I know how we can win. We need to put Valeria’s big ar*e in the goal’. It shattered my whole world”.

By the time she was 23, Valeria’s dress size had plummeted from a healthy size 12 to a tiny size six. And attempts at getting into modelling only made matters worse — because she was told she was STILL too fat.

Valeria’s passion was ballet and she dreamed of becoming a dancer. But at 24, and weighing just 6st, she was banned from dancing over concerns she would injure herself.
For the next ten years she saw more than 30 health specialists, though once dipped to a dangerously low 3st 10lbs.
photo
 She says now:

“This disease is not about being cured by a doctor”. “It’s a deeper problem than that; it’s a lack of harmony between body and soul. I never gained any weight seeing specialists. I have never been hospitalised.

“The best cure I ever found was when I said to myself, ‘I’m going to recover”.
“I was feeling better and when you feel better your body starts to come back to normal. When you become healthier your body will start eating, not vice versa.
“You don’t force yourself to eat then become better, it’s not like that”.
Today she takes supplements to counter the risk of bruising and avoids situations where she could fall.

Now Valeria believes the solution could lie in moving back to Moscow. There is one incentive to get well again having a baby via a surrogate. It is something she feels she can do if she can get herself healthy. “I think moving back to Moscow would help me once again feel at ease with myself”, she says.

 “I would love to have a family because I feel I have so much to give”. “But obviously it wouldn’t be right to have a baby when I am ill. It wouldn’t be fair on the child”.

“I want to stand up to anorexia. I’ve never given up on anything in my life and I’m not about to give up now”. “I must win, in order to feel that my life hasn’t been wasted”.

LEARN TO APPRECIATE YOURSELF FOR WHO ARE YOU.. NO MATTER WHAT!!!

HE MAKES ALL THINGS BEAUTIFUL IN HIS OWN TIME!! THAT'S GOD!!

He Makes Everything Beautiful In His TIME
Sometimes, you have to be HUNGRY for change to come.

Break Time, Lunch Time.

I was hungry, so I went to the cafeteria. I had two (2) raps of pounded yam with Afang soup garnished with okporoko, dry fish and goat meat. It was very tasty, so I ate to my fill. I returned to the office and found a packaged food (Fried rice and Chicken) on my desk. The MD had bought lunch for the staff. The food didn’t look interesting, so I gave it to the MD’s driver. Perhaps it would have made much difference to me if it came before I went to the cafeteria. Five minutes later, the driver came to my office and filled my head with thanks and praise, cos he was very hungry and the MD didn’t make any order for him.

Then, I thought to myself, what I took common, is what someone else appreciated.

Deuteronomy 8;2-3.
Remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee through the wilderness for forty years….. and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know….

Jehovah took the Israelites through the wilderness and caused them to hunger, so when he gave them manna, they didn’t take it common, but appreciated it. Perhaps they would have taken it common if they weren’t hungry.

The point is this
That you’re hungry and dissatisfied with a situation is a good sign that God is about to do a new thing. He just wants you to be hungry for it and be expectant; so that you’ll appreciate the provision he’ll make and not take it common (for the expectation of the righteous shall not be cut short).

You’ve probably looked at yourself and realised you’re supposed to be operating at a higher level, and that people you started with have done far. There’s nothing wrong with your feeling (But remember, we’re not competing with anyone. Competing with someone would only limit your destiny in life). God is about to do a new thing. We live in a revolving world and we serve a God that makes things happen within seconds. He’ll cause you to overcome and take charge.



I believe!!

Wednesday 21 November 2012

DON’T TAKE OFF YOUR UNDERWEAR!


I saw this post on a friend's wall and thought it wise to share it. Please after reading this piece if you are touched and want to bless others kindly share or report!
FLEE FROM ALL YOUTHFUL LUST, FOR IT WARS
AGAINST YOUR SOUL.
(2 Tim 2:22)
A MUST READ FOR ALL LADIES IN THE HOUSE!!!
I used to be that innocent girl who had the world at her feet. I was beautiful and I had eyes and hips that could make men sway, and to top it all up, I was a Christian, a very good Christian with a heart burning for God. When I entered the university, I met a guy, his name was Derrick. I couldn’t believe my luck the first time I bumped into him on my way to class, he had such a kind smile and a tender look that weakened my knees when he spoke. Because I was late for class we couldn’t talk much but barely three weeks later, I met him at the fresher’s night party and I was overwhelmed. We got talking and I found out that he was in his second year and from that night, we became an inseparable pair. At first, we were friends and as months passed by, we got closer and closer and the chemistry between us was undeniable. About a year after I entered the university, Derrick and I started dating. He was everything a girl could ever want and desire save the fact that he wasn’t so much of a Christian. Derrick had magical hands that made him hard to resist and most times I fell for it. At first, I felt bad but when I couldn’t help falling into the same
pit i killed the guilt on my inside. And then one day, one of my friends said I was getting fatter and that got me thinking and in the process I began to link the dots…first I had a vomiting spree every morning which I
thought was due to a flu and then I had this morning sickness which I felt was due to stress and then my missing period…oh no it can’t be possible I said to myself, I couldn’t be pregnant!!! After a series of test outside school, I realized the deadliest truth, I was indeed pregnant. I was only nineteen, I still had a whole life ahead of me, what was I going to do. I couldn’t tell my parents, they wouldn’t hear of it. I had to go to Derrick to tell him what I had found out. On telling him, I saw him fly into a temper I had never seen in
my life. He was so hysterical, calling me all sorts of names and I didn’t even know when I started crying heart drenching tears of hurt and betrayal. When he looked into my eyes he must have realized how scared and hurt I was and so he pulled me close and ran his hands through my hair until I had calmed down and then he said to me in the most subtle voice ever ” why don’t you have an abortion”. I pulled back instantly, I couldn’t have an abortion! But when he talked about my parent and the sanctioning of the school and the fellowship which I belonged to, I knew I had no other choice. Derrick had made all the arrangements and so on the supposed day we went to the room- like clinic. I shivered all through my way there but Derrick kept telling me that it would be okay and that he was proud that I made such a brave decision. When I entered into the room where the abortion was supposed to take place I laid down on the table trying to dissociate my mind from what I was about to do and then a young man told me sternly, ” you know I can’t perform this procedure with your underwear on” and then I began to pull it off. As I did this a sense of guilt overwhelmed me, first I had pulled off my underwear of pleasure and now I was pulling it off to get rid of the stigma the pleasure had brought…what a shame, I felt so exposed. All through the times that I felt instruments coming in and out of me, I kept thinking of the lady I had become and the hypocrite I had transformed into. I let out a sigh, only if I can get through this I muttered…only if…and then I felt a sharp pain pierce through the whole
of my body, I screamed but then the doctor told me to be quiet. I felt another pain but this time I bit my lip and then the pain began to come in successions. I instinctively knew that something was wrong but I was too weak to talk or to move and then I heard the voices of Derrick and the doctor talking about the fact that I was bleeding excessively. The pain was so unbearable and I could feel myself getting weaker and weaker. With the last strength in me, I pleaded with God ”Oh Lord I’m so sorry for taking my under wears off, please forgive me."and I drifted into a world where the pain seemed less hurtful and the voices seemed more distant. Friends, our bodies are the temple of the Lord…Do not take off your underwear when the time is not right. Lots of girls who gained admission into the university as virgins eventually lost it so cheaply to guys who have nothing to do with their destinies. In a bid to get a certificate, they sold out a destiny that certificate cannot guarantee. Friends, permit me to say it for the umpteenth time, even if you have lost your virginity, you can become chaste again! Record a period of virginity from a particular time till marriage and in the presence of God, you are as chaste as someone who has known no man because you have chosen to honor Him again despite your past. Virtuous women aren’t in bed with their fiance right now. If he is sleeping with you… he’s sleeping with others. Yup, you are not the only one. A boyfriend, even a long term one is STILL not a husband. Too many women are giving boyfriends husband privileges! We keep losing what is rightfully ours because we keep messing with what’s not ours. There is just something classy about a woman who can control her emotions! Many have been laid on the slab of abortion, yet they keep involving in activities that will take them back on that slab! Risking it all! Please, DON’T TAKE OFF YOUR UNDERWEAR!; any man who has not signed his life to you is not worth it!.
NO RINGING (Marriage) NO PINGING (Sex).

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Man Without Face Fears Unborn Child Will Look Like Him

India - A father-to-be has spoken for the first time about living with no face – and how he’s terrified he has passed his condition onto his unborn child. Mohammad Latif Khatana, 32, from Kashmir, India, cannot see or work due to the severe creases on his face.

He is now over the moon that his wife is seven months pregnant, but worried his son or daughter will look like him.

He saya: “I cannot wait to be a father and have some happiness in my life. But I worry every day and pray my child is not born like me.”

Latif, who lives high in the mountains with his 25-year-old wife Salima, in Tuli Bana, in Jammu and Kashmir, travels to Srinagar for four months of the year to beg and find money.

He was born with a small lump on his face, but it has continued to grow and now form huge flaps across his face, making it impossible for him to see.

Latif says: “My mother still cries when she looks at me. She feels so much guilt and cannot understand why her youngest boy was cursed.”
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Latif is the youngest of two brothers and three sisters - and the only child suffering this condition. Without his siblings, he would’ve lived a very lonely childhood without friends: “Nobody wanted to play with me as a child,” he recalls. “The boys in my village used to beat me and taunt me every day. I lost my left eye when I was eight years old and they used to call me one-eye freak.

As an adult, Latif continues to face many struggles. He is a strong man, but because of his failing eyesight and facial condition no-one would give him a job.

He says: “I’d love to do an honest day’s work like a normal man providing for his family. It would make me so proud, but no one will give me a chance. I have to beg and hope people take pity on me so that I can feed my family.”
Latif remembers many occasions when people spat on him as they walked past.

However, four years ago Latif finally met the love of his life. His parents tried hard to find him a wife, but no girl would come forward, until Latif heard about Salima.

“My wife has only one foot, and so for many years she struggled to meet a husband. As soon as we met we knew we were right for one another,” he says. “We were both medically incomplete, we were a good match.”

They married in a traditional Muslim summer ceremony with 400 guests, in August 2008, and have been very happy ever since.
“I feel very blessed to have met Salima, she is good for me.", Latif adds. “I feel a little normal now I have a wife, a little more complete than I did before. And now that she is pregnant with our first child, I am even happier. No matter how I look I am a happy man right now.”
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But Latif, who is in no pain and takes no medication, still worries his child will be born with the same facial condition.
He says: “We can’t afford to see a doctor now, we’re too poor. And no doctor in the past has told me not to have children. I can only hope and pray that our baby will be healthy.”

Latif’s brother decided to sell some land eight years ago to pay for a trip to send Latif to see a doctor.

But, Latif says, “The doctor told me that my condition was due to a solar eclipse when my mother was pregnant with me. I don’t know whether to believe him.

“And now there is so many veins going through my creases that surgery would be too dangerous. I have lost all hope of help.
“This is how I’ll look forever.”
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Now, that God has blessed him with a wife, and he is waiting for his first child to be born, maybe he found his happiness? He surely deserves it... We hope his child is born without medical complications...
 
 
When we see situations like this, all we should say is ... Thank you Lord!! Keep saying it..

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Police brutality: “They inserted metal into my private part” – Middle-aged woman in Ogun



 A middle-aged woman, Mrs QUEEN AKINDELENI, of Anu Oluwa Complex, Jolu Road, Sango-Ota, Ogun State made these revelations. This is her story in her own words

I was a property developer and seller of building materials at Edu Agbara, Ogun State prior to my arrest, detention and injuriously torture sometimes in October, 2009.

I woke up one morning and suddenly allegations were made against me was that I was responsible for the death of my husband Mr. Ayodele Akindeleni whose where about could not be ascertained at the time, then the matter was reported at Agbara Police Station, Agbara, Ogun State. I went to Agbara Police Station, Agbara,Ogun State, myself on the 12thof October 2009 to report the matter after I was threatened by the family of Mr. Ayodele Akindeleni that they will kill me and my Children, Charles Ighovoyiwi and Esther Ighovoyiwi, if I did not tell them the where about of Mr. Ayodele Akindeleni.

I made the compliant on the threat to my life and the lives of my children, I was not permitted to leave the Police Station, and as my children came one after another to look for me, they were also arrested.

They expected me to make a confessional statement that I killed Mr. Ayo Akindeleni, after his family member, James Akindeleni, came to complain.
The D. P. O. of Agbara Police Station at that material time told the team investigating the case that they should not call the case murder case, but rather missing of Mr. Ayo Akindeleni.

My son Charles came to look for me after he came back from school and it was the heavy noise of his cry that made me knew he was around. Charles later told me and I believe it to be true that it was the back of a gun that was used to hit him at his legs.

I totally do not know anything about the disappearance of Mr. Ayodele Akindeleni, neither was I responsible for his alleged death, on a Saturday I was taken to one bush to go and see one skeleton/Carcass they called the carcass of Mr. Ayo Akindeleni. The next day which was Sunday the team of Police Officers who investigated the case at Agbara Station, excluding DCO 1, whose name I did not know, and the D. P. O., came to station and took me out. The team of Police Officers who investigated the case at the Police Station ,Agbara, Ogun State, tortured me with cruelty that I must confess that I killed the alleged deceased person.

I can only remember the first names of two out of the team of Police Officers who were involved in this case at Agbara Police Station, Agbara, Ogun State; the first names are Shadrach ( DCO 2) and Raphael. Shadrach gave me one straight metal with four corners, which looked like window aluminium to carry and tell him whether it was heavy or not. I told him the metal was heavy and he took it from me and Shadrach started using it to beat me repeatedly on the left side of my body from up to down. Then later the three other Police Officers joined him (Shadrach), they beat me with the metals in their hands and led me to the Barrack (the Police residence within the premises), as I was struggling to climb the veranda Shadrach used the metal in his hand to strike me hard at my back, I fell down immediately and could not stand. As they were doing these I was screaming and wailing with pain that was beyond description.

They later took me into a bathroom, and i was asked to remove my under wear (pant). The team of Police Officers who investigated the case asked a female officer, whose name I could not remember, to insert the metal which Shadrach gave her into my private part. The Female Police officer asked me to be screaming as if she has inserted it and I did as she instructed me. The Female Police officer later told them that she had inserted the metal into my private part but I did not confess. Then Shadrach came to the bathroom and took the metal from the female officer and tried to perceive it smell/odour to confirm if it was truly inserted into my private part.

Shadrach discovered that the metal was not inserted into my private part, he took it himself and held me with force to the ground, with my legs wide opened and forcefully inserted the metal into my vaginal. Shadrach inserted the metal into me forcefully, I screamed with the whole of my strength and I felt as if life had gone out of me.

Then immediately he removed the metal I faintly saw a heavy rush of blood out of my vagina, but was weak and helpless. I was held and partially carried back to the passage of the Police Station, Agbara where I was laid on the floor. I was there on the floor blood continued to flow and I discovered that I eventually fainted, because I woke up and I saw myself soaked with water.When the D. P. O. of the Police Station saw me, he was surprised and asked whether they tortured me and they responded that they did not torture me.
I was not attended to by anyone and I started smelling. About four days later a man was invited to examine me and they later brought drugs for me to use.I discovered that with the drugs I was given the flow of blood reduced. I then noticed that urine was just leaking out of my private part and I could not control it at all.

My daughter Esther Ighovoyiwi who was twelve (12) year old at the material time was arrested on the same allegation at Agbara Police Station, Agbara, Ogun State by the team of Police Officers who investigated the case. While Esther Ighovoyiwi was in detention, though only for that day when she came to look for me, at Agbara Police Station, she was severally slapped and inhumanly assaulted, by Shadrach, to the extent that she became sick and had her ears discharged pos uncontrollably under groaning pain.Esther Ighovoyiwi was eventually released on bail after her arrest and brief detention, which I knew, was unlawful.

My son Charles Ighovoyiwi who was Fourteen years old (14) at the material time was arrested, detained and tortured by the team of Police Officers who investigated the case, they beat up CharlesIghovoyiwi, using sticks on him and even threatened to kill him. My son spent one month and twenty nine days in detention at Agbara Police Station, Agbara without being charged or convicted of any crime.

After I was transferred to Nigeria Police Force, State Headquarters,Elewe Eran, Abeokuta, Ogun State, my son tod me that he was released by the influence of one man, whose name he did not know. The Police Officers who were equally part of the investigating team at the Nigeria Police Force, State Headquarter, Elewe Eran, Abeokuta, knew I was tortured and blood and urine was flowing from my vagina. They then went on to summon the team of Police Officers who investigated the case at Agbara Police Station and he asked me to identify the person that inserted metal into my vagina, which i did.

However I was not provided with medical attention at Elewe Eran, Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Abeokuta throughout my stay there. I was took into the Prison Custody, Nigerian Prison Service, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State, with blood stained clothes and I was walking half-bent and I had to lean on someone, sometimes standing objects and walls to support myself.Even the staff of the Nigeria Prison Service, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State at the material time, including the medical personals at the Prison’s Clinic knew that my vagina was releasing urine uncontrollably and I had chronic pains in my back, bones and other parts of my body.

I was later given treatment in the Clinic of the Nigeria Prison Service, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State, and I was referred to Federal Medical Centre, but there was no money for my treatment. I was not taken to any Hospital for treatment outside the Nigeria Prison Service, Ibara, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

During my stay at Ibara, i was interviewed by delegates from Citizens’ Right Department, Ministry of Justice, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State, I was also interviewed by one Barr. Ashaolu Joshua Olabowale , sometimes in July, 2010, who I identified as a member of the National Youth Service Corps because of the NYSC uniform he wore at the welfare Department, Nigeria Prison Service, Ibara, Abeokuta. Barr. Ashaolu Joshua Olabowale told me and I very believed him to be true that he was serving with Ministry of Justice Ogun State as 2010/2011(BATCH A) member. He then told me that he was interested in my case. On subsequent visit to the Nigeria Prison Service, Ibara, Barr. Ashaolu Joshua Olabowale told me that he was handling my case personally, but was supervised by a senior State Counsel at the Citizens Right Department, Ministry of Justice, Ogun State. I was released on 2ndof September,2010 by the Order of the Chief Magistrate Court, Agbara based on the Advice of the Director of Public Prosecution, Ministry of Justice, Ogun State.I was made to understand that the allegation against me was frivolous, baseless and lacks merit, particularly considering the facts and evidence of the police.

They said that i and my children suffered for what we did not know about. After my release from the Prison Custody Barr. Ashaolu Joshua Olabowale took me to the Federal Medical Centre, Idi Aba, Abeokuta, where I was examined at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and I was asked to run several tests. My Hospital Card number is 80626.

After the medical examinations and tests were carried out, Barr. Ashaolu Joshua applied for my Medical Report. I was confirmed to have Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF), which it main symptom is continuous involuntary discharge of urine, because of the abnormal openings in the internal parts of my genital/vagina caused by the metal the Police Officer inserted into my Vagina. I was scheduled to undergo further examination which I was preparing for when I lost contact with Barr. Ashaolu Joshua O. All my efforts to get him proved abortive, because I left the place where I was squatting and I was not using a mobile phone. I did not hear from him or see him till the end of his stay in Abeokuta.

I went to the Citizen’s Right Department, Ministry of Justice, Abeokuta, Ogun State and I was told to go and treat myself because they cannot take up the matter for me.I was told by one of the Doctors that examined me that my case requires a major repair surgery and I know it must be very expensive. They said i could not go for the final examination and treatment because I had no money. I am still living with my situation and it is even worst now, because I ooze foul odour and release urine involuntarily, apparently an effect of a ruptured bladder occasioned by the inhuman torture I suffered in the hands of the Investigating Police Officer at Agbara Police Station, Ogun State. So because I could not afford to treat myself in Abeokuta and to avoid the way I am being openly embarrassed by the way I smell, the way I am rejected and avoided, I relocated to a village in Ogun State, where I now farm to survive.

I was a sucessful business woman before, had taken a long walk from Agbara POLICE DETENTION TO ELEWE ERAN, ABEOKUTA POLICE DETENTION TO NIGERIA PRISON SERVICE CUSTODY TO ABEOKUTA TOWNSHIP AS WONDERER AND NOW IN A VILLAGE IN OGUN STATE LIVING ALONE, APPARENTLY WAITING FOR MY END.

I have been kicked out of the public, I have to withdraw because I am often rejected and avoided.I have lived with continuous flow of urine from my Vagina and have used cloths among others as sanitary pad to pack my genital/vagina for more than one thousand (1000) days.The trauma of the barbaric acts still frightens me.

The V. V. F., general body and internal pains and other health issues confirmed in my body after examinations still remain untreated.

My consultant can be reached on 07051647234 This injustice left my children, Charles Ighovoyiwi and Esther Ighovoyiwi with a bitter and dreadful story, which they will live with for the rest of their lives.Charles Ighovoyiwi, who was a student of Tech 1, Technical College Igbesa, Ogun State missed all school activities for a whole school term. Esther Ighovoyiwi (age 12) who was a student of Edu Agbara Community Secondary School had to leave school and fend for herself. My children are now drop outs and have no hope of going back to school. My little Esther had to become a mother when she never wanted.

Gosh!!!! This is brutality in it's highest state. Indeed, the heart of men is evil!!! God help this nation Nigeria!

Aluu 4 killing – Llyod Devastated Parents Speak Out


Llyod’s parents , Mrs. Jane Toku, the mother of Lloyd, one of the four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt that were lynched at Aluu community in Rivers State, says her son’s death will always haunt her.

She also expressed shock that the crowd could watch how her son and his friends were gruesomely murdered. Jane spoke with Punch correspondent amid tears on Monday in Port Harcourt.

Jane said, “When we got there, one of them was still breathing. He was gasping for breath, but the crowd…they were all there watching while my baby (Lloyd) was butchered. Come to my area and ask questions about my child; the child I trained.

“Penultimate Sunday, we went to church, Salvation Ministry; that is where he worshiped  We all went together for the second service. He stayed back for the remaining service. When he came back, he started preparing to go to school. I can still see him as I talk to you.

“He brought out a book; ‘How Faith Works’ by David Ibiyomie and he said ‘Mummy, read this book and you will know what faith is all about. By the time I come back on Friday, you will tell me what faith is all about.

“Ever since, I have been moving around with that book, so that I could read and not get him angry when he comes back from school and ask me about what I learnt from the book.

“Thursday was his daddy’s birthday. He (Lloyd) called him and wished him happy birthday. When his daddy asked him if he would be coming home to celebrate the birthday with the family, he (Lloyd) promised to be back on Friday after lectures.

“But on Friday morning, we got the call that my son was being beaten. How can I erase the fact that my son was lynched from my mind? He studied very hard and got admission into the university.”

Meanwhile, the community was like a ghost town on Monday as the inhabitants of the area left their homes to avoid being arrested by security agents.

Shops, restaurants and mini supermarkets were also shut by their owners who felt students of the university were planning a reprisal on the community.

Four students were on Friday morning lynched by suspected members of the community for allegedly stealing laptops and mobile phones.

Students living off campus in the community were not left out in the rush to leave the community to avoid the wrath of security agents, who had been patrolling the area.

The police had since the killing of the four students arrested 13 suspects from Omuokiri village in Aluu, including the village head.

Immediate past President of UNIPORT Student’s Union, Mr. Rhino Owhorkire, told our correspondent that students had shelved the idea of any reprisal.

Owhorkire vowed not to rest until those behind the killings were brought to book.

Lloyd’s parents appealed to government not to allow those involved in the gruesome murder of their child and his friends go scot-free.

Lloyd Toku was a 200 level undergraduate of Civil Engineering at the university before he was killed.

Speaking with PUNCH Metro on Monday, Lloyd’s father, Mr. Mike Toku, insisted that his son was neither a thief nor a cult member.

Toku, who is the Assistant Director, Presentation, Radio Rivers and a father of three male children, narrated how he got a distress call that his son was being beaten up by a mob.
He said, “On Friday morning at about 7am, we got a distress call that our son was being beaten alongside two of his friends. So, we quickly rushed down. Initially, it was very difficult for us to locate the place, but by the grace of God, we were able to locate the place.

“By the time we got there, we saw a mammoth crowd with a few Joint Task Force members there. So, we pulled through the crowd and when I tried to move closer, the JTF operatives told me to move back. Later on, one of my cousins supported me and we moved on again and explained to them (JTF operatives).

“I move close to the four corpses on the ground and I discovered that one of them was my son. We were also able to identify the other three as his friends. We took the corpses to UPTH to ascertain whether they were still alive. A doctor came out, examined them and said they were all dead. My son has never stolen before,” Toku explained amid tears.

He called on government not to allow those behind the gruesome murder of his son and his friends to go unpunished.

“All I want is for justice to be done. That’s all. Whoever carried out that dastardly act should be brought to book. That is all I want. I have not got assurance from anybody that justice will be done. I am yet to get that (assurance). Nobody has talked to us yet.
Also, Toku’s wife, Mrs. Jane Toku, stated that the crowd was watching while his son was being butchered to death.